In the book "My Grandmother's Hands", the author Resmaa Menakem brings up the terms dirty pain and clean pain. Menakem uses the term dirty pain to describe those who have trauma and pour their trauma out on to other people without ever seeking help for healing. The term clean pain describes those who have trauma and seek out help they need to heal to avoid spilling their trauma onto others.
We all have trauma, it is rooted in our blood due to years and years of war and survival through out history, passed down intergenerationally from our ancestors. However, too many of us do not care about the fact that we are continuously spreading out trauma onto others, sometimes without even realizing it. People with dirty pain can be erratic, overly sensitive, judgmental, hot-tempered, emotionally unstable, aggressive, avoidant, dismissive, and hurtful. We have all come across dirty pain people whether in our personal lives or for example right now, politically. We are entering a new chapter in history where unity is needed to progress. We still have an immense amount of work as a nation to do regardless of the election results. We are more divided than ever. We cannot continue to allow ourselves and other's to secrete their dirty pain onto others and feed into this divide. During times like these it is important to heal collectively as a whole, because clean pain will always supersede dirty pain.
Please seek out professional help to heal yourselves, it is necessary for a functional society.
Stay educated and aware.
Open up healing discussions with loved ones.
Imaginatively visit your ancestors, talk to them, hear their stories and feelings to heal your own lineage.
Increase your level of contribution to society and others.
Gather allies and continue educating others about what you need.
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